CAT vs. ASTE, TSLA, AIT, AOS, DE, ETN, IR, MCD, TEX, and WMT
Should you be buying Caterpillar stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Caterpillar include Astec Industries (ASTE), Tesla (TSLA), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), A. O. Smith (AOS), Deere & Company (DE), Eaton (ETN), Ingersoll Rand (IR), McDonald's (MCD), Terex (TEX), and Walmart (WMT).
Caterpillar vs. Its Competitors
Astec Industries (NASDAQ:ASTE) and Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends, media sentiment and institutional ownership.
Caterpillar has a net margin of 14.95% compared to Astec Industries' net margin of 3.50%. Caterpillar's return on equity of 48.95% beat Astec Industries' return on equity.
Caterpillar has higher revenue and earnings than Astec Industries. Astec Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Caterpillar, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Astec Industries has a beta of 1.43, meaning that its share price is 43% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Caterpillar has a beta of 1.46, meaning that its share price is 46% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Astec Industries presently has a consensus price target of $41.00, suggesting a potential downside of 8.60%. Caterpillar has a consensus price target of $488.13, suggesting a potential downside of 3.36%. Given Caterpillar's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Caterpillar is more favorable than Astec Industries.
In the previous week, Caterpillar had 101 more articles in the media than Astec Industries. MarketBeat recorded 108 mentions for Caterpillar and 7 mentions for Astec Industries. Caterpillar's average media sentiment score of 1.24 beat Astec Industries' score of 1.16 indicating that Caterpillar is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Astec Industries pays an annual dividend of $0.52 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Caterpillar pays an annual dividend of $6.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. Astec Industries pays out 26.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Caterpillar pays out 30.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Caterpillar has increased its dividend for 30 consecutive years. Caterpillar is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
93.2% of Astec Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 71.0% of Caterpillar shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Astec Industries shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Caterpillar shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Caterpillar beats Astec Industries on 17 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CAT and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
Media Sentiment Over Time
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Caterpillar Competitors List
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This page (NYSE:CAT) was last updated on 10/13/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
